Method for Generating Low-Waste Personalized Meal Plans within a Budget

Abstract

Disclosed is a method for generating a meal plan including receiving a plurality of user profiles, receiving a cuisine selection, receiving a budget selection, displaying a meal plan in accordance with the cuisine selection and the budget selection, the meal plan including a plurality of meals wherein at least one of the plurality of meals is scaled in accordance with the plurality of user profiles, displaying a first cost associated with the meal plan, displaying a shopping list in accordance with the meal plan, the shopping list including a plurality of ingredients associated with the plurality of meals.

What is claimed is: 
     
         1 . A method for generating a meal plan, the method comprising:
 receiving a plurality of user profiles;   receiving a cuisine selection;   receiving a budget selection;   displaying a meal plan in accordance with the cuisine selection and the budget selection, the meal plan including a plurality of meals wherein at least one of the plurality of meals is scaled in accordance with the plurality of user profiles;   displaying a first cost associated with the meal plan;   displaying a shopping list in accordance with the meal plan, the shopping list including a plurality of ingredients associated with the plurality of meals.   
     
     
         2 . The method of  claim 1  wherein each of the plurality of user profiles includes a daily caloric intake selection. 
     
     
         3 . The method of  claim 2  further comprising:
 apportioning the daily caloric intake selection between at least three meals. 
 
     
     
         4 . The method of  claim 1  wherein each of the plurality of user profiles includes an activity level selection. 
     
     
         5 . The method of  claim 1  further comprising:
 receiving a location information. 
 
     
     
         6 . The method of  claim 5  wherein the location information is a zip code. 
     
     
         7 . The method of  claim 5  further comprising:
 sending the shopping list to a grocery provider. 
 
     
     
         8 . The method of  claim 1  wherein the first cost associated with the meal plan is based on a price of the plurality of ingredients at a first grocery store. 
     
     
         9 . The method of  claim 8  further comprising:
 displaying a second cost associated with the meal plan; 
 
     
     
         10 . The method of  claim 9  wherein the first cost associated with the meal plan is based on a first price of the plurality of ingredients at a first grocery store and the second cost associated with the meal plan is based on a second price of the plurality of ingredients at a second grocery store. 
     
     
         11 . The method of  claim 1  further comprising:
 receiving a snack food budget; 
 providing a list of snack food; 
 receiving a plurality of snack food selections; 
 adding the plurality of snack food selections to the shopping list. 
 
     
     
         12 . The method of  claim 11  further comprising:
 indicating when a total cost of the plurality of snack food selections exceeds the snack food budget. 
 
     
     
         13 . The method of  claim 1  further comprising:
 displaying a first dish of a first meal of the plurality of meals; and 
 displaying a list of ingredients in the first dish. 
 
     
     
         14 . The method of  claim 13  further comprising:
 substituting a second dish in place of the first dish; and 
 updating the shopping list. 
 
     
     
         15 . The method of  claim 14  further comprising:
 storing the substitution of the second dish in place of the first dish as a persistent preference; and 
 substituting the second dish in place of the first dish in each of the plurality of meals, respectively. 
 
     
     
         16 . The method of  claim 13  further comprising:
 substituting a first ingredient on the list of ingredients in the first dish with a second ingredient; and 
 updating the shopping list. 
 
     
     
         17 . The method of  claim 16  further comprising:
 storing the substitution of the second ingredient in place of the first ingredient as a persistent preference; and 
 substituting the second ingredient in place of the first ingredient in each dish of each of the plurality of meals, respectively. 
 
     
     
         18 . The method of  claim 13  further comprising:
 removing a first ingredient from the list of ingredients in the first recipe; and 
 updating the shopping list. 
 
     
     
         19 . The method of  claim 1  further comprising:
 receiving a list of prohibited ingredients; 
 filtering the plurality of meals to exclude a meal having an ingredient on the list of prohibited ingredients. 
 
     
     
         20 . The method of  claim 1  further comprising:
 displaying a list of staple ingredients; 
 receiving a selection of on-hand staple ingredients; 
 removing the selected on-hand staple ingredients from the shopping list. 
 
     
     
         21 . The method of  claim 1  further comprising:
 displaying an on-hand quantity for a first ingredient of the plurality of ingredients; 
 updating the shopping list in accordance with the on-hand quantity; 
 updating the on-hand quantity. 
 
     
     
         22 . The method of  claim 1  further comprising:
 receiving a rating for at least one of the plurality of meals; 
 wherein the displaying of the meal plan is further in accordance with the rating. 
 
     
     
         23 . A method for generating a meal plan, the method comprising:
 receiving a plurality of user profiles, each of the plurality of user profiles including a meal participant name and a daily caloric intake selection;   receiving a cuisine selection;   receiving a location information;   receiving a budget selection;   displaying a meal plan in accordance with the cuisine selection and the budget selection, the meal plan including a plurality of meals wherein at least one of the plurality of meals is scaled in accordance with the plurality of user profiles;   displaying a first cost associated with the meal plan, the first cost based on a price a plurality of ingredients associated with the plurality of meals at a first grocery store;   displaying a shopping list in accordance with the meal plan, the shopping list including the plurality of ingredients associated with the plurality of meals.   
     
     
         24 . The method of  claim 23  further comprising:
 displaying a second cost associated with the meal plan; 
 
     
     
         25 . The method of  claim 23  further comprising:
 receiving a snack food budget; 
 providing a list of snack food; 
 receiving a plurality of snack food selections; 
 adding the plurality of snack food selections to the shopping list. 
 
     
     
         26 . A method for generating a meal plan, the method comprising:
 receiving a plurality of user profiles, each of the plurality of user profiles including a meal participant name, a daily caloric intake selection, an activity level selection, and a list of allergens;   receiving a cuisine selection;   receiving a zip code;   receiving a budget selection;   receiving a selection of one or more days;   assigning one or more user profiles of the plurality of user profiles to each of a breakfast meal, a lunch meal, and a dinner meal on each of the one or more days;   displaying a meal plan for the one or more days, the meal plan displayed in accordance with the cuisine selection and the budget selection and scaled in accordance with the one or more user profiles assigned to the breakfast meal, the lunch meal, and the dinner meal on each of the one or more days;   displaying a first cost associated with the meal plan, the first cost based on a price a plurality of ingredients associated with the plurality of meals at a first grocery store;   displaying a shopping list in accordance with the meal plan, the shopping list including the plurality of ingredients associated with the plurality of meals; and   receiving a rating for at least one dish of one of the plurality of meals.